Insurance Authority bans former insurance agent for two years for using false academic certificate under the self-regulatory regime
27 September 2022
The Insurance Authority (IA) has taken its latest disciplinary action against a former insurance agent who used a false academic certificate to establish that she met the minimum education requirements to be an insurance agent under the previous self-regulatory regime. The case was handled in accordance with the requirements in place at the time the false academic certificate was submitted and the former agent has been prohibited from applying to be licensed for 2 years.
The former agent used a false academic certificate in October 2018 when she originally applied to be registered as an insurance agent with the Insurance Agents Registration Board (IARB) under the self-regulatory regime in place prior to the IA taking on the regulation of licensed insurance intermediaries on 23 September 2019. During the IA’s investigation, the former agent admitted that the academic certificate was not genuine, that she had not studied at the school stated in the certificate, that she had not obtained any other qualifications that could satisfy the minimum education requirements to be a registered insurance agent, and that she had purchased the academic certificate via WeChat for RMB2,000 yuan. As indicated, this case had to be handled in accordance with the transitional arrangements in Schedule 11 of the Insurance Ordinance (Cap. 41) (the Ordinance), which required the relevant requirements in place at the time to be applied and the disciplinary approach of the IARB1 to be followed. Hence a two-year prohibition was imposed.
In the IA’s view the former agent, in using a false academic certificate purchased via social media to feign that she had met the minimum academic requirements to be an insurance agent (when this was not the case), undertook an act so contemptible as to demonstrate her complete lack of fitness and properness to perform the role for which she was applying. The public are entitled to trust the insurance intermediaries they deal with for their insurance needs. Trust demands ethical conduct and integrity of character. An individual who displays such a lack of ethics and integrity by using a false academic certificate in a submission to a regulator violates that trust. If an agent cannot be trusted to submit authentic documents to a regulator, she cannot be trusted to serve the public. The IA has zero tolerance for this and individuals who have sought to utilise false academic certificates under the previous self-regulatory regime will not be considered fit and proper persons until they are able to establish that they have undergone such a complete reformation of character as to prove that their integrity has been restored (in addition to attaining the minimum education requirements).
The new regulatory regime for licensed insurance intermediaries which came into force on 23 September 2019 has strengthened the punishment for submission of false academic certificates in the licensing process. It is now a criminal offence to provide false information to the IA in connection with an application for a licence or an approval under the Ordinance2. An individual who commits such offence, if found guilty, will be liable to a fine at level 53 and to imprisonment for 6 months. The IA will have no hesitation in prosecuting any individual who seeks to submit a false academic certificate to the IA as part of the licensing process.
Insurers also have a part to play in ensuring that, as part of their recruitment and on-boarding processes for new insurance agents, they carry out adequate checks on the accuracy of the information being submitted to the IA as part of a licensing application by their prospective new insurance agent.
For further information on the IA’s enforcement work, please see the “Enforcement News” section of the IA’s website. Public disciplinary actions against licensed insurance intermediaries may also be searched on the Register of Licensed Insurance Intermediaries on our website.
Ends
Notes:
1 Pursuant to section 113(4)(d) of Schedule 11 to the Ordinance, in handling non-compliance cases unresolved by the Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs), the IA may impose a disciplinary sanction on a specified person that could have been imposed by the SRO concerned had the case been handled by the body.
2 Section 64ZZE of the Ordinance sets out the offence to provide false information in connection with application for licence or approval.
3 Pursuant to Schedule 8 to the Criminal Procedure Ordinance (Cap. 221), a fine at level 5 is HK$50,000 at present.